Construction Forum
The Construction Forum has been established to build a stronger relationship between HMRC and construction sector representatives with a particular focus on the Construction Industry Scheme.
The Forum will act as a policy advisory group and provide the means to discuss significant taxation issues affecting the construction sector. It will provide a platform to discuss changes in taxation policy affecting the sector and explore the implications of those changes with experts from both professional bodies and industry.
Membership
| ICAS |
| Association of Accounting Technicians |
| Association of Chartered Certified Accountants |
| Association of Taxation Technicians |
| BCS, Chartered Institute for IT |
| British Land |
| British Property Federation |
| Build UK |
| Chartered Institute of Taxation |
| Derwent London |
| Employment Tax Industry Forum |
| Federation of Small Businesses |
| Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales |
| International Association of Bookkeepers |
| Law Society of Scotland |
| Confederation of British Industry |
| The Business Application Software Developers Association |
| National Housing Federation |
| Institute of Certified Bookkeepers |
HMRC members
HMRC members are drawn from these policy areas:
- Tax Administration Policy and Strategy
- Indirect Tax
- Off-Payroll Working Programme
- Large Business
- Operational Excellence
- Wealthy and Midsized Business Compliance
Terms of reference
Name of the group
- The name of the group will be the Construction Forum (‘the Forum’).
Role of the forum
- The Forum will consider taxation issues which affect exclusively, or disproportionately, the construction sector.
- The Forum will provide the means:
- to discuss significant issues affecting the construction sector widely or specific parts of the sector
- for HMRC to discuss changes in taxation policy affecting the construction sector and explore the implications and potential consequences of the changes with experts from professional bodies and industry
- for HMRC to explain other areas of legislative change, which may have implications for the construction industry generally or Construction Industry Scheme specifically, in order to facilitate a wider understanding of the impacts on the sector
- to provide an opportunity for early input from external stakeholders into proposed changes to guidance and legislation
- to provide the opportunity for external stakeholders to raise illustrative wide-ranging or sector-specific practical examples of practical difficulties causing ‘grit’ in the system or posing barriers to achieving objectives
Meetings and attendance
- Meetings will be held once every quarter for the first year, then reviewed for their frequency.
- Exceptionally, additional meetings may be called at short notice to discuss matters of urgency.
- If there is nothing to discuss, a meeting can be cancelled by majority agreement.
- HMRC may seek the views of forum members as a trusted stakeholder group. If items are confidential, that will be made clear when views are sought.
- The chairmanship will be joint between an HMRC senior official and an external member to aid collaborative working and offer balance, representing the interests of a wide-ranging stakeholder cohort at a strategic level.
- Membership of the Forum will be in accordance with the agreed membership criteria.
- The Forum secretariat will be an HMRC officer. The secretariat will seek agenda items from members and will circulate the agenda well in advance of the planned meeting. The secretariat will take minutes and record action points.
- Representatives will be advised of progress on action points by email between meetings.
- The Forum will encourage constructive and open dialogue on the understanding that some aspects are to remain confidential until HMRC confirms that the aspect is no longer confidential.
- Minutes, terms of reference, list of members (organisations and named representatives) will be available online on GOV.UK.
- Members of the Forum are required to comply with Chatham House rules and must be observed by those attending the Forum meetings.
Membership
- The Forum will be jointly chaired by a senior official from HMRC and an external professional body representative.
- The co-chair should be impartial and able to represent the interests of a wide group of stakeholders.
- External members of the forum will be drawn widely from representative organisations which reflect a wide range of construction industry sector customer needs and views.
- The names of proposed new external members who meet the qualifying criteria, will be circulated to forum members prior to any formal invitations being issued.
- Organisations should be represented by one person. If a standing member is unable to attend a particular meeting, they should arrange for a deputy to attend wherever possible.
- HMRC permanent members of The forum will be drawn from HMRC’s Tax Administration Policy, Individuals Policy, Large Business, Wealthy Midsized Business Compliance, Operational Excellence and Strategic Policy into Delivery (construction leads).
- The Forum will comprise ideally of no more than 30 external members.
- Invitations to attend specific forum meetings may be given to non-standing members at the joint chairs’ discretion, including other HMRC directorates’ representatives.
- A member with an agenda item should introduce the item at the Forum.
- The joint chair will decide on whom action points fall which arise from issues discussed, irrespective of who tabled an issue for discussion.
Meeting minutes
Previous years’ meetings
Previous years’ minutes are held on The National Archives website:
Construction Industry Scheme data
You can view data by tax year.